Where is the problem...?

Hi guys and girl,

why is it, that most of the people can't speak english here. I truely can't understand, what "I find it good" should mean for exsample. Also you can read a lot german stuff here.

It is no problem if you can't speak english at all. We all need to learn it piece by piece. But to be honest, you can't learn english correctly if you only read this german-english-mix-stuff.


What do you think about that? And don't use this copy and paste technic all the time. Write it in your own words ^^


Bye

There are many problems

THE Italian Man in Malta speaking English

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@Korra

Reminds me of English classes at school. Though everyone's situation was basically the same as for not being native speakers, people couldn't seem to overcome their fear of making fools of themselves.

Apart from that, maybe it would help to put some new controversial topics up for discussion. They needn't necessarily be new, of course. Picking up "old" topics from the 'allmyverse' should do the trick, too. 😉 

@Strigoaica
I never understood why someone is so full off fear. It is ok to make mistakes. That the only why you can learn. I think thats the Whole reason of Mistakes in the first place.

When i was in school, i had the problem that my english was to good. Most of the other students didn't understood me. The worst part is, that a lot of people made fun of me and gave me names just becourse i could speak english and the others not.

Also most of the people, nearly everyone I know, can't speak english. The problem is, they can't understand a few jokes after all. They don't understand simple Videos on Youtube.

This is so disturbing

I totally agree, making mistakes is a natural part of learning. We also make mistakes in our mother-tongue, no big deal. 
In some cases, there seems to be a lack of interest, and that's what's most surprising to me. How can young people not be interested in knowing a language they're confronted with on a daily basis? I remember listening to English songs on the radio when I was a child, way before I went to secondary school. I wanted to know what they're about right away. Wanted to know the exact words so I could sing along. Which is, by the way, still the case with the Spanish songs that pop up each summer. 😁 
Among the people I know, the ones in their late 20s and early 30s know English pretty well, even if it's been more than a decade since their last English lesson. My parents' generation (somewhere around 50 upward) is able to follow English news coverage on TV, for instance, but has difficulty in speaking the language. But the younger ones, ranging from 14-20+x ......... Total disaster, as Mr Trump would put it. 😄 That really makes me wonder what happened... 

Here's an addition I have to make: Among the younger ones, regular players of online computer games and the like form a remarkable exception. They are more fluent in English than others their age, thanks to the practice they get through communicating with other players. So much for the negative effects computer games have on the younger ones. 😄

@Strigoaica
I always disable the subtitles in video games. It's just so annoying when you got theis subtitle running allong all the time. You don't know if you want to read now or shot the guy that stole your car.

And if a friend of mine speaks english, it always sounds like a frog in a near miss situation with an airplane. And then they come to me and aks if I could help them. Of course I could. But if I say, that they should only speak english with me for a while, they don't want it. But you can only learn if you try it.
But its even better when they say, why don't want to speak english. They always say, that they can#t understand a word. Of course not. You haven't learned it yet.

So, it's a total disaster ^^

Korra schrieb am 05.07.2017:as to good.

Korra schrieb am 05.07.2017:becourse

Korra schrieb am 05.07.2017:got theis

Seriously?

The only way to improve your language skills is to use it :ok:

Since i am Saxon, some people make fun of my pronunciation - in both german and english. But as long as we can communicate, its all right i guess.

You are quite right, and that is exactly why I have thrown myself all in into this German-speaking community, to practise my German (I am Swedish). It is no use to try to practise with other learners, it is much better to go for the real thing - in my case real Germans - from the start... even if it feels scary sometimes!

@Merwinna

Well, i wish you good luck :)

Grymnir schrieb:Well, i wish you good luck :)

Thanks. In fact it feels a little more natural every day to write in German, now.

@Merwinna

Thats nice :) I guess German is pretty hard to learn, so i give you all my respect for doing it!

If you want to learn it you need to immerse yourself in it. Start thinking in the foreign language. Read it, write it, watch it, speak it. Travel if you can.

That video is hilarious btw.

We get taught in school that making mistakes means low grades. Everything is measured by them. for 8-13 years. That's a lot of time to practice being afraid.

And at least in my time, English classes were so incredibly dull. Nothing, really nothing to make you keep going.

I started liking English only after I finished school. then I started learning it the way people should learn it.

I'm still not perfect, but I think I can make do.

@MUArchivist

The trick is easy. Just take a video, a movie or a book and work through it until there are no gaps left. I started with a paper dictionary and VHS. Nowadays it's much more convenient with flashcard software, online translation and multiple subtitles.

I can promise you, no adult native speaker will think of me as a native speaker. But I can hide my accent pretty well. Since I never lived abroad, it still takes some effort though.

@Thaddeus

Your grasp of the written language is certainly damn close to what I expect of a native speaker - and trust me, I've seen quite a few things that no sane human should wwitness ;)

Around here, it's mostly movies and TV to catch up with different dialects or phrases ... so far, so good.

I am painfully aware that my accent is still there, even though the "typical" "th" madness isn't something that happens for me. I would like to think that my grammar is agreeable as well (even though I have to fight for words here and there).
Sadly, I have can not yet get rid of the harsh "v" and "w" emphasis, as in German I stumble over "ch" and "sch" a lot - some things are just not meant to be said :D

Nah, for a non-native spraker you've good a damn fine grasp, good sir. Damn fine.

Anybody else with this experience? I now feel like I have my English and my German in two different, sealed compartments in my brain, and when I am inside one of them it is very difficult for me to leave it and go into the other. I experienced this phenomena again just now: I have spent a couple of hours in writing to my Hungarian friend in English - and now when I came here and tried to write a post in German in one of the threads, it was just impossible. I could not place the words in order for one single sentence in German, I just heard the sentence ringing in my ears in English, and I even started to feel a pain in my head, as if I was straining my brain...

Will this pass when you get better at the newest language, in my case German? (Changing between Swedish or Danish and English or German makes no trouble at all for me.)

@Merwinna

Merwinna schrieb:Will this pass when you get better at the newest language, in my case German?

No, it get‘s worse :D No, seriously, the better I got in english, the more difficult I found the switch. I remember watching a video, mainly english, and it suddenly switched to german. I didn‘t understand a thing for the first few minutes.
But that‘s just my personal experience, maybe you will get used to it with time.